Comprehending What It Means

I think it might be impossible for whites to truly comprehend what Obama's victory means for many African-Americans. But two images have let me appreciate it just a little bit more.

First, as shown above, we have Jesse Jackson welling up while standing in Grant Park after Obama won. This picture is cropped, however. When the image was broadcast live, Jasckson was standing among several seemingly random people -- all white -- who were assuredly happy, but were not emotional and were completely oblivious to Jackson and his tears. I felt it was doubly-symbolic. Not only was the reality of a black President enough to move Jackson to tears, but the lack of similar emotion from those surrounding him highlighted the difference in the meaningfulness of the moment among the races. I think there was also, then, a triply-symbolic aspect to this image, in that not only was it historic that a black man was elected President, but the fact that he was black was hardly meaningful to most whites that voted for him. Basically, it was moving that the white people didn't find the moment moving. So it was another reason for Jackson to be overcome with emotion. The content of Obama's message, if not his character, completely dwarfed any part about the color of his skin. Well, maybe that doesn't count as triple symbolism. We'll stick with double. Someone let me know if they find a screen-cap of Crying Jesse with the white people around him. (Jay Leno said that Jesse was crying because he makes more than $250,000 per year. Apparently, Jesse had other reasons for the tears. Very moving).

Second, while coming out of the Metro station on the way to work this morning (Friday), there was a line of 35 or so people snaked around a corner. All of the people in line were black. They were lining up to buy a copy of Wednesday morning's Washington Post from a specially set-up street vendor. Newspapers all over the country have been printing out extra copies. The Post had to print out an additional 350,000 copies due to demand. Newspapers sold out in Atlanta, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Detroit, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles as well. I know that there's no evidence that this is all due to large masses of black people wanting to buy a commemorative newspaper, but I'm also fairly sure that white people in general would not be standing in a long line to wait to buy one, especially two days after the paper came out. I stopped for a minute or so to just look at the line. It was a good visual representation of the meaningfulness for African-Americans of Obama's victory.